


a half hidden smile and a glance in my direction

by postfixrevolution



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Pre-Relationship, i wrote this really fast omg i hope it's okay, pre-game, so haPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS HANNAH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 09:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7165907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postfixrevolution/pseuds/postfixrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's offhand and casual, how he acknowledges Silas as a knight, but the boy with the verdant eyes does not let Leo get away with it, laughing musically at the disdainful curl of his lips and the barely-there flush of his cheeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a half hidden smile and a glance in my direction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fledermauss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fledermauss/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HANNAH, LITERALLY THE BEST FRIEND I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR!! Honestly, though, I absolutely adore you, yeah? It's a little late, but I hope you're able to enjoy this dumb little thing I wrote, heh~
> 
> Unbeta-ed (because it's mY BETA'S BIRTHDAY I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE HER WORK), so forgive any little mistakes that may pop up, and enjoy~!

"Prince Leo!"

The prince stops in his tracks, looking up from his tome with a small frown. He cranes his neck behind him just in time to see Silas running at him, screeching to a stop at his side and clapping him a bit too forcibly against the back. The book falls out of his hands and clatters to the ground. Earthen eyes narrow as they turn toward the other boy, thin lips twisted into a scowl, while verdant eyes flicker from those of the prince to the book sprawled dejectedly on the stone floor. Silas blinks.

“I...didn’t expect you to drop that,” the grey-haired boy says.

Leo closes his eyes, exhales a tired sigh.

“I’m not sure what your intended reaction was,” he deadpans. “Would you care to tell me what prompted this? Or did you just find yourself overcome with the urge to attempt to bowl me over?”

Silas laughs, swooping gracefully down to pick up the book. The page Leo had previously been on is long lost by now, but the brilliant grin offered in lieu of a forgotten page number is brighter than even a sun-painted alabaster page could be. The book is held dutifully before him, and he snatches it with a soft  _ hmph _ . The boy’s grin doesn’t fade.

“Forgive me, Your Highness; I was just excited.”

An eyebrow is arched as his book is opened once more, flipping to any arbitrary page within the same area as his previous one; Leo heads down the hallway as he had been before, his new companion falling seamlessly into step beside him. The sound of two sets of footsteps is quick to blend into one, and the change is so natural that the blond only half registers it past the hum of text behind his eyes.

“It’s Kamui’s birthday today,” the boy elaborates, bouncing slightly in his gait. The synchronized footsteps falter slightly. “I’d told Lady Camilla to wish her my best for me when she drops by today, and I’m excited to hear from her. I’d taken the time to pick her some of her favorite berries, too.”

“Time a knight in training could have better spent practicing,” Leo quips with a snort.

“Time well spent,” Silas shoots back effortlessly. “I don’t regret a minute of it.”

Earthen eyes glance up at him. It’s unfortunate, Leo thinks to himself. He’d visited his older sister in her Fortress just the previous weekend, spent the days in the presence of the smile Silas swears is sunshine incarnate, and she never says a word about her once best friend. She hasn’t since a month after their separation, when her tears and her memories of him had been smothered away by saccharine words and a touch of magic. Leo remembers the day acutely, crimson eyes staring intently into his as he took her head in his hands, a tear-stained heaviness disappearing from her ruby-like eyes just as a lightness the size of a low, mellifluous laugh and the promise of wooden sword fights in the courtyard faded away alongside it. Four years have passed since Silas’s name had fallen from the isolated princess’s lips, and never has a time passed when the young knight-in-training hasn’t reminisced about the day they might meet again.

Leo shakes his head slightly, banishing the thought from his head. Silas still smiles beside him, a contented joy on his features. Four years worth of chances to tell his companion the truth, yet the prince hasn’t said a word to him. There is a lightness to his grin that makes it impossible, and Leo turns back to his book with a beginnings of a frown, staring intently at the quickly blending lines of ebony text across the page and registering nothing.  

“I’m certain she’ll be elated,” he tells Silas levelly. The other boy slows to a stop beside him, disjointedly aligned footsteps clashing harshly. It takes a moment for Leo to realize that he had left him behind, and when he snaps his book closed and turns around, Silas stares at him with owlish verdant eyes.

“Do you...really think so?” 

The blond rolls his eyes. 

“For a knight, you have terrible faith in your prince,” he repartees. “Do they not teach fealty to their recruits anymore? How tragic.”

The grey haired boy blinks at him, a blank expression on his face for the briefest second before a soft laugh puffs out past his lips, verdant eyes alighting with mesmerizing spark. His features pull up into a teasing smile.

“A knight in place of a knight in training?” he repeats playfully, flashing Leo a grin. At his words, Leo grimaces, turning away with a scoff.

“I see no difference,” he sniffs disdainfully, reopening his book and continuing his path to the library pointedly. The blond doesn’t recognize the page at all, but stares intently at the words nonetheless. There is an undeniable warmth behind his cheeks, a growing embarrassment that becomes harder to quash the longer teasingly sparkling eyes gaze at him, and he mentally curses his companion. 

Silas’s footsteps break into a quick rhythm before Leo fully registers it, and when calloused fingers appear in the corner of his vision, his book is already snatched from his fingers before he can react. The grey-haired boy steps agilely to the side, book between his fingers and a grin on his face, sunshine incarnate like the boy says so often of Kamui’s, but warming the blond so much more than his distant sister’s ever had. He forgets his annoyance for a moment, somewhere in the turn toward Silas’s direction, and when he comes face to face with the boy, there is only the ghost of a frown still on his lips. 

“You called me a knight!” Silas intones, smiling brilliantly. “Admit it, or you aren’t getting this book back anytime soon!”

“Is that a challenge?” he replies, arching a thin eyebrow at him. “From the squire boy to the prince?”

Silas laughs freely at that, and the sound is loud and mellifluous; Leo finds it hard not to want to laugh alongside him, allowing the smallest beginnings of a smile to curl up at his lips.

“Yes, consider it a challenge,” the knight responds wickedly. “I’ve always wanted to give the prodigal prince a taste of his own medicine, after all.” He sticks his tongue out at Leo childishly, and at the other boy’s scoff, darts off down the hall with the book in his hands and light laughter echoing behind him. Earthen eyes simply watch his form run off for a moment, a blur of ebony fabric and steel-grey hair, and the blinding smile Silas tosses over his shoulder is the last thing Leo sees before the boy deftly rounds a corner. 

Leo glances at the hall around him - it’s empty same for the windows showing trees almost the same verdant as his eyes, sunlight filtering in with almost the same brightness of his grin - and, in a split second, his feet start moving before his mind can catch up. The rhythmic echo of Silas’s running footsteps is quick to blend into his own, and Leo sprints down the hallway following the sound of his laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> hannah ily happy birthday


End file.
